“Wow Frey! This horse carriage is so big!” We left Cervana two days ago, and are traveling north to Aperian for two reasons. One, to see if Cerina’s teacher Merlin is ok, and two to…

“Hey Frey why are you coming?”

“I’m going reclaim my family’s right to the throne I guess. Still shocked that I’m Aperian royalty.”

And that.

Apparently the trip was a week and a half. We’d have to go through a couple of unique terrains… I didn’t bother to remember them. Frey has everything under control! Right now we were crossing the dead grassland. It’s just like any old grassland except everything’s dead!

The grass was all brown, and the trees were nothing but branches pointing daggers at each other. A very spooky place indeed. The carriage itself was cleaned out of any merchandise that Gorfon was selling, only the lonely wooden interior was in our company. Cerina also packed some secret goodies! She won’t tell me though. L

“Yea it’s what my father uses when he goes to other cities. He’s lending it to us, He told me he’s going to focus on magic again, and train Ponta as well. Without any Merchandise it must be quite roomy in there” Frey turned his head backwards to see that his words were not heard.

“That’s not fair! How did you!”

“It’s ok Melody. I’ve been playing this game since I was a child.”

“So what! RAWR another game!” I cleared the board and quickly reset the small black and white pieces. Being in a merchant town has its perks, Cerina packed some of the board games from around the world. Right now Cerina just taught me how to play Othello(1). Frey continued to look at us. Did he want to say something? Whatever!

“And It’s my win again!”

“What! How- Awww”

The cart rose in the air. I looked at Cerina’s surprised face as we were suspended in gravity for a split second. We crashed on top of one another with a loud thud. The black and white pieces were flung everywhere.

“Frey what happened!”

“My bad It seems we ran over a small rock” Frey jumped off the carriage to investigate. The rock wasn’t exactly small; it was medium I guess. It did look irregular tough.

The chilly wind reminded us we were not in Cervana anymore. It was silent. Without the trotting of the horses the silences felt ominous. It didn’t help that the vegetation also looked dead.

“Don’t worry you have me here”

♪ I sing this wonderful song from the people who can’t do anything without me, please fix-♪

A snapping sound interrupted my song, as an arrow pierced through the cold air, and into my weak shoulder.

“Awww! What” I grabbed the area around the arrow and collapsed to the ground. I’m never going to get used to this pain thing!

Cerina instantly sprung in front of me and drew her sword. Frey led me to inside of the carriage. It hurts, it burns! What is this!

The arrow had a slightly green tip that shined to the faintest touch of light.

“Okay Melody I’m going to break off the arrow and pull” Frey snapped to a decision. Unfortunately, his body didn’t agree and was trembling. The moment his shaky fingers touched the arrow.

“AWWWWW!” The pain reached across my body. Frey instantly retracted his hand. Idiot did you forget who I am!

♪I sing for this arrow to be removed, and this wound closed♪ white notes surrounded the arrow and my shoulder. The arrow rolled across the wooden floor of the carriage, and my shoulder started to feel a lot better.

Ahh! That’s great. Now who was it that made me endure that undesirable feeling! I peeked my head out of the carriage to see Cerina’s blade dance around 5 men. The mean wore a dirty brown entire. Probably to blend in with this dreadful scenery.

A green light sparkled in the distance. Is that…

An arrow! It whipped through the air. Its point was facing Cerina’s chest.

*Sling* The arrow was sliced in half.

“Don’t worry Mr. archer I see you, I’ll get to you in a sec” Cerina taunted. Cerina’s long hazel hair fluttered as she danced between blades and arrows. Some of her hair was actually being cut off.

“She’s good… to hire such a bodyguard the loot in that carriage must be top notch, maybe even some artifacts.” One of the men breathed heavily.

“Let’s all attack at once” All the men rushed Cerina at once. In one giant sweeping motion Cerina parried all their swords at once.

“what!” One of the men said in fleeting astonishment. Cerina positioned her body low to the ground and zipped past him. Her sword was held to her right protruding from her low posture.

The brown grass was died red. Another sword was swung from behind Cerina in a downward strike. Cerina pushed of her feet and rolled forward catching herself with her feet. She then pushed off the ground and arched her back in a c shape. She flew over the head of her attacker, and delivered a clean slice to the back of his neck. Cerina’s feet landed with a wave of confidence. The wave of confidence shook the very air and made the remaining men take a defensive stance.

“Come on guys I’m sure if the rest of you come at me you might stand a chance.” Cerina threw her sword directly up in the air.

Almost as on instinct the remaining men dashed the unarmed knight. Cerina went to her signature low stance, and slid underneath a slash and kicked the hilt of one of the swords.

“What!” The unarmed bandit jaw was crushed by Cerina’s other foot. Cerina ‘s body was pushed up by her arms, and fully extended to deliver that upwards kick. The momentum of the kick threw the man backwards. Cerina’s momentum was towards him. She tucked in her stomach and legs and pushed both legs in towards his chest.

Cerina launched through the air and grabbed her falling sword and impaled it into another bandit. The last man lugged a huge swing at Cerina’s behind, but the falling sword from the first man altered the sword’s trajectory of his swing slightly. Enough so that Cerina could do a small leap in the air. The blade ran inches from her body. She quickly rolled over her back and clamped her feet in the hilt of the sword impaled in the other guy and flung it at the man above her. The hilt smashed his face in. The resulting impact of the hilt bounced it off his face leaving a trail of blood in the air. But before the sword could touch the ground Cerina grabbed it in reverse and sliced it through the man’s side.

Cerina instantly turned towards the woods, towards where the arrows were shot, but no more hints of green were seen. Did that person run away?

Well I won’t let them!

♪I sing to bring that person who injured me here♪

*Bam* The side of the carriage rocked a little, I peak my head to the opposite end. I saw a hooded figure with a quiver on his back and an arm through a bow.

“So it’s you! Are you ready to experience my wrath!” I yelled while crossing my arms! Eh? Unconscious.

“Hey, It’s no fun if I don’t see you suffer” I hopped out of the carriage and shook the person’s shoulders.

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“Where am I?” The guy who was going to feel my wrath very soon regained consciousness. The ropes that bound him caused him to panic a little more. I won’t even need my song’s to have fun with him. I eyed the green tipped arrows that we stored within the carriage.

“Were still here, but I don’t know how long you will be.” I gave my best creepy smile.

“Hold on Melody.” Frey held a hand in front of me. “We need to know if he works with a group or not.”

“As if I’ll tell you anything.” He spat towards Frey’s foot.

“Well I tried…. Cerina make it painful.” Frey waved his hand. Cerina who was sitting on top of the carriage jumped down and used his shoulder as a step before landing on the ground.

“AWWW!” He screamed as he looked at his dislocated shoulder.

“Talk now and I’ll pop it back for you, if you don’t I’ll still pop it back for you, but I’ll pop it out again.” Cerina tried copying my creepy smile. It did look creepy… but in a different way.

“I’m a part of the Deadwood Gang. We make a living by having people like you go through checkpoints.”

*pop* “Awwww!”

“That wasn’t so hard was it? Is there any more of these checkpoints?” Cerina tried to maintain her creepy smile. Gosh its morphing! Hehe.

“Yea we have them all over the forest. But I don’t know where! All squads aren’t told in case of this situation!”

“You expect me to believe that!” Cerina vulture gripped his shoulder.

“Please! Really I don’t know!”

“I tried to save you Mr.Shoulder” Cerina tightened her grip even more.

“Pleasssseeee I doon’t knoooowww!”

Before Cerina could dislocate his shoulder again Frey stood up, holding a rock.

“I think he’s telling the truth. Even if he isn’t I think I could find out where their next ‘checkpoint’ is.”

Eh. “huh” Cerina loosened her grip.

“This rock. If we didn’t go over this, we would not have stopped. Meaning that their ambush would have failed. Leaving something like this to chance seems like a bad business model, so this rock was planted.” Frey presented the rock for everyone to see. It was a small white rock the size of a small hand. My hands.

“But that seems nowhere big enough of a rock to cause the wheel to break.” Cerina interjected.

“It isn’t, but what if the rock could grow.”

“Do rocks grow here” I bent my head closer to inspect the white rock.

“pff do rocks grow from where you’re from Melody!” Cerina brought her hand to her mouth in an effort to cover her laugh.

“This rock has lingering traces of magic.” I moved my eyes from Cerina to Frey who started pouring magic into the rock. Just like a sponge the rock grew. Frey dropped the rock when it reached the size Gorfon’s belly.

“Which means…”

“!” Frey immediately darted his gaze to the surrounding area. The dead trees looked no different than they did before. What was he looking for?

“Cerina did you encounter a magic user in combat?”

“No I did not, only sword wielders. Oh and this arrow guy.” Cerina kicked his side.

“Aw!”

“Then there’s a mage somewhere. Anyone could supply their own magic from touching this rock, but from a range you’d need a little bit more training. Hey where’s the mage?” Frey looked down at the bandit who was still recovering from Cerina’s kick.

“Heh… your talking about our leader! The rogue mage!”

“Who?” The three of us said in unison.

“You guys don’t know? Well I’ll tell you she is strong beautiful, talented. She can tether a magical connection from great distances. Did I mention she’s beautiful, and strong? She can also tether…”

*Boom* The rock that was placed on the ground glowed red before exploding. But before the wave of the explosion could reach me Cerina’s fast reflexes moved her body in front of me.

Her eyes saying ‘Don’t Worry. I am here’.

The blast knocked me and Cerina back a couple feet. I clenched my eyes close before impact to brace myself.

The next thing I saw was Cerina on top of me. Her chestnut hair was messed up from the skirmish. It was uneven, but I could see the appeal of her face better. Her large upturned eyes were a nice hazel color. She had a small cut running across her check, her perfectly pink plump lips were panting a little.

“Thanks!” I smiled back at her.

“Yup!” She pulled me up. A bright red flame blocked our vison of the carriage.

“Frey!” We both rushed towards the emanating red torrent. As we got closer the flame started to die down.

We saw Frey knocked to the ground a couple feet away, but a red transparent dome was shielding him. Next to him laid ashes of the man we tied up. Hey someone took my wrath away!

Out of the trees emerged a person with a black jacket with huge red jagged stripes diagonally striking it. The person pulled down their furry white hood. A female. She had medium length flare red hair that would go a little past her shoulders. Her hair was carried a little to the right by the wind. Her hair seemed to be a darker shade of red near the roots. She emitted an overwhelming presence that froze Frey, and Cerina in place. I continued walking but Cerina’s hand was locked with mine.

“Yup he’s dead” The women said stomping on the bound man’s ashes. She walked over to Frey she waved her hand, and the red dome vanished.

“I hope you weren’t injured to bad. She offered a hand to Frey. Frey stared at the hand. His eyes were analyzing all the scars on her hand.

She abruptly took his hand and pulled him to his feet.

“You’re fine.” She patted some of the dirt off him.

“I am that rogue mage my underling was speaking about. He spoke a little too much. You guys don’t seem to have anything of interest. No spell books, no artifacts.” She peaked inside our carriage. She then proceeded walking back into the forest.

“Safe travels” She gave a backwards wave back.

“Frey did you feel that! Her magical aura was insane!” Cerina curled her wrist back and gestured her hands downward.

“I felt it. She’s stronger then my father. But her eyes held a very sad look. I want to meet her again.”

“Eh?” Cerina turned towards him.

“Hey Melody can your song’s resurrect the dead? I think Frey has a death wish.”

“Nope I can’t. If Frey dies. He is G-O-N-E” I slowly spoke each syllable.

“She could have easily wiped us out, before you could get a word out Melody. I wonder what she’s after? She didn’t even care about her fallen comrades.” Frey rubbed his chin.

“Nothing we can do about it now, let’s continue the adventure!” I marched into the carriage and sang my song to restore the broken wheel.